A number of technologies are currently available to allow consumers to access information stored remotely on networks such as the Internet, corporate intranets, etc. Browsers, for example, are a well-known class of software applications which enable computer users to download hypertext pages and other types of data from the World Wide Web and other remote sources. Another, more recently developed information access technology is commonly referred to as "push" technology. With push technology, a remote server generally gathers information on various topics from remote databases, packages the information into subject groupings called "channels", and automatically downloads selected channels to the user's computer. The user does not need to search for or request the information. The retrieved information may be automatically stored locally on the user's computer, such that the user can browse the information off-line at a time of his own choosing.
While information access technology has made significant advances, conventional information access tools have several problems, which prevent consumers from obtaining the full benefit of on-line information. One problem is the speed at which remotely stored information can be delivered to a user. Although the achievable data rates are generally increasing, very high speed data connections, such as T1 lines and the like, tend to be too expensive for individual consumers to afford and therefore tend to be limited mainly to commercial uses. Further, steadily increasing delays due to increased network usage contribute to the speed problem.
Push technology and local caching may be partial solutions to the speed issue. However, these solutions do not address a second problem, which is organization. In particular, conventional technologies, such as browsers and push technology, generally are focused on presentation rather than organization. Consequently, these technologies often do not provide information to a user in such a manner that it can be easily assimilated. This problem of organization is analogous to the notion of clipping articles out of a newspaper. Over time, a person may find a large number of newspaper articles interesting and therefore clip them out for future use. However, if the person ever wanted to see, for example, all of the articles from a particular newspaper, by a particular writer, and written in a particular month, he might find it difficult to sort through all of the accumulated articles. Essentially the same problem exists with regard to on-line information retrieved using conventional tools, such as Web browsers and push technology. Web pages, for example, have traditionally been designed to be pleasing in appearance, but not necessarily the most effective means of conveying large volumes of information to a user. Push technologies provide some improvement in organization by using channels or the like, but generally do not provide a user-friendly way for a person to access large volumes of stored information in the event that he wishes to archive the information for later use.
Hence, it is desirable to provide a technology for accessing information stored remotely on a network, such as the Internet, which overcomes the above noted disadvantages of conventional information access technologies. In particular, what is needed is an information access technology which provides a user with improved speed of access and improved organization of the delivered information.